Monica suggested to Sam, Alice, Grace and Veronica that they should determine what to wear to the gym based on what they recently learned: clothes change how you feel and the right design lines and colors for your body help you tap into your confidence and personal power. She recently learned that exercise is not only good for your body but also good for your brain. The problem is she isn’t athletic like Sam. In fact, she’s the exact opposite.
Monica knows she needs to explore different types of exercise, but walking into a gym is intimidating. So she thought — if she wore exercise clothes with the right design lines for her body, she’d have the confidence to walk into any gym and experiment with different types of exercises. She thought she’d start with dance fitness classes because she loves to dance.
Keep reading to learn what gym clothes gave her the extra confidence to walk into a gym and why.
Monica’s Body Elements
As a review, these are Monica’s Body Element clues:
- Body Shape — O (Body Shape — The Girls)
- Angular clothes silhouette
- Avoid placing horizontal lines at the waist
- Avoid placing vertical lines at the shoulders
- Face Shape — Pear (Face Shape — The Girls)
- Curved design lines, prints and accessories
- Color Skin, Hair, Eyes — Medium Color Contrast (Color Skin, Hair & Eyes — The Girls)
- Favorite Colors — Green, Yellow and Red/Orange
- Color Combinations (other colors) — Analogous
- Color Combinations (relative lightness and darkness) — Medium contrast
- First Scale Clue — Medium
- Body Proportions — Long between bust/waist, Long between waist/crotch, Short between crotch/knees, Short between knees/floor (Body Proportions — The Girls)
- Horizontal lines — Don’t place them between her crotch/knees and knees/floor but she can place them between her bust and crotch. However, because she has an O Body Shape, she needs to avoid them at her waist
- Vertical lines — Limit them between her bust/crotch but do place them between her crotch/floor
- Second Scale Clue — Increase overall scale between bust/crotch and decrease it between crotch/floor
- Body Frame Size — Medium (Body Frame Size — The Girls)
- Third scale clue — Large
- Scale Strategy — Medium/Large (Scale Strategy — The Girls)
- Increase to large between her bust/crotch
- Decrease to medium between her crotch/floor
What To Wear To The Gym -- Top
When looking for an active wear top, Monica knew she needed to look for horizontal design lines in her shoulder area. She learned that this design line would make her shoulders appear in balance with her waist. It was hard to find and in a color she liked. She thought the DKNY logo would do just that.
Design Line & Color Analysis
Silhouette
Monica learned that her Body Shape gives her clues as to which silhouette, angular or curved, works best for her. She has an O Body Shape which falls into the angular Body Shape category. This means she needs to look for clothes with an angular silhouette.
This active wear top has an angular silhouette which is perfect for Monica. She feels lucky because angular silhouettes are easier to find than curved ones.
Horizontal Lines
Throughout the past nine months, Monica has learned that her Body Shape and Body Proportions give her clues as to the placement of horizontal design lines. She also learned that the placement of these lines is important because they stop the eye, emphasize the area and make it appear a little wider and shorter.
With respect to her Body Shape, she wants to avoid horizontal lines in her waist area, but wants them in her shoulder and hip areas. By placing them in these areas, they’ll balance out her waist width. On the other hand, for her Body Proportions, she wants to avoid them in her short area, her legs, and place them in her long area which is between her bust and crotch.
Monica noted that this top has four horizontal design lines: neckline, DKNY logo just above her bust, sleeve hemline just below her bust and hemline at her hips. All four horizontal lines are perfect for her. The combination of neckline, logo and sleeve hem makes her shoulder area appear wider which balances out this area with respect to her waist. The top’s hem does the same with respect to the hip area.
With respect to Monica’s Body Proportions, these horizontal lines help make her torso appear shorter and more in balance with her legs.
Shape Of Design Lines
Monica is drawn to prints. She likes the texture they bring to an outfit. In the past 9 months, she’s learned that her Face Shape gives her clues as to whether she should wear prints with angular or curved design lines. Her face is pear shaped, which puts her in the curved category.
The only design line that has shape on this top is the neckline. It has a crew neckline which falls in the curved category.
Color
Monica has always known that the color of clothes is important. She’s been drawn to clothes because of color. In the last nine months, she’s deepened her knowledge in this area. When looking for clothes now, she looks for her favorite colors of green, yellow and red/orange.
The color of this active wear top is close to her favorite color of red/orange. When she put the top close to her face, she saw that it brightened up her skin, hair and eyes.
What To Wear To The Gym -- Leggings
After finding the perfect top, she wanted to find leggings with a print that goes with the top. This print goes well with the top and makes her happy.
Design Line & Color Analysis
Silhouette
Monica held up the leggings and looked at the difference between the waist and hips. She was determining whether they appeared to be the same width or the waist was smaller than the hips. She knows that she wants the waist and hip to be the same width because that creates an angular silhouette.
Monica determined that these leggings have an angular silhouette.
Horizontal Lines
Monica learned that she wants to avoid horizontal lines at her waist and limit them in her leg area. When it comes to active wear leggings, there are a lot of horizontal design lines. The pair of leggings she chose had only two: at the waistband and the hem which is below her ankles.
Monica isn’t concerned about the one at the waist because she’ll be covering it up with the top. With respect to the hem, she chose the longest one because she wanted the horizontal line created by the hem to be below her ankles because it’ll give her legs the most length.
Monica always hated pants because her legs seemed so out of balance. Now that she’s learned tricks to fool the eye, she’s willing to experiment more with wearing pants.
Shape Of Design Lines
The print on the leggings has a leaf motif, which has both angular and curved design lines. An all curved print would be better; however she thought this would work, especially because it’s not close to her face.
Color
One of the interesting things Monica learned about color is that the contrast in color between her skin, hair and eyes gives her clues as to color combinations and the relative lightness and darkness of those colors. She has a medium contrast. This means she can wear analogous and triadic color combinations and the relative lightness and darkness of these colors is medium.
In these leggings, her favorite color is being paired with black and white, two neutrals. However, black and white create high contrast in the relative lightness and darkness. When Monica tried on the leggings and the top, she felt light and confident. She knew she could walk into any gym and have the confidence to figure out which exercise program would work for her.
Final Thoughts
Monica was grateful that she has the knowledge to determine what to wear to the gym using all she’s learned about the right design lines and colors for her. She’s always been intimidated by the gym and the people inside. Now she feels she can find her place there and as a result, she’s improving her body, mind and spirit.
Next week, Alice will be sharing what activewear clothing she’ll be wearing to the gym. She’s stayed away from exercise because she believes it’ll make her shoulders appear even wider. Since she was very young, she’s been teased about her football shoulders. She knows exercise is good for her and is joining Monica in determining which exercise category works best for her. She shares her experience in: What To Wear To The Gym — Alice.
Wear Your Greatness!!
